who was Jose Rizal?

On June 19, 1861, the Mercado Family from the town of Calamba in the province of Laguna in the Philippines,
happily greeted the birth of their newest member a baby boy born as the seventh child to proud parents Francisco Rizal Mercado y
Alejandro and Teodora Alonza y Quintos. They named the bouncing baby boy Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado. Being the seventh of a
brood of eleven, Jose Rizal Mercado demonstrated an astounding intelligence and aptitude for learning at a very young age when he
learned his letters from his mother and could read and write at the age of five.
Educational Foundations
The Mercado family enjoyed relative wealth as landowners who rented the land of their hacienda to the Dominican friars in Laguna.
Hence, education was a priority for the Mercado family and young Jose Protacio was sent to learn from Justiniano Aquino Cruz, a tutor
from nearby Binan, Laguna. But the education of a small town and a tutor did not sufficiently quench the young mans thirst for
knowledge and soon, the family began to make preparations for his admission to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, in the capital of the
Philippines.
The school was run by the Jesuit Order and was one of the most prominent and academic institutions in the country which catered to the
rich, the powerful and most intelligent students that country had, certainly a place for a young man like Jose Protacio Mercado.
Studying in Manila
Prior to his enrollment in this prominent learning institution, his older brother Paciano Rizal Mercado, insisted that Jose drop the
surname Mercado, to ensure that the younger Mercado would be disassociated with the outspoken and borderline subversive reputation
of his older brother. As such, the young man known as Jose Protacio Rizal enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
Being the child of a family of wealthy landowners, Jose Rizal decided to study for a degree in Land Surveying and Assessment at the
Ateneo de Municipal de Manila where he graduated on March 14, 1877, with honors orsobresaliente. He took and passed the licensure
exam for land surveying and assessment in 1878 but was not given a license until 1881 when he turned 21.
In 1878, after his completion of his degree from Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he pursued, his passion for the arts as he enrolled at the
Faculty of Arts and Letters for a degree in Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas. Although he excelled at philosophy, the news of
his mothers impending blindness convinced him to study Medicine, and in 1878 he enrolled in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at
University of Santo Tomas to specialize in ophthalmology. Citing discrimination against Filipino students by the Dominican professors
in Medicine, Rizal left the medical program in 1882.
Believing that education in the country was limited, he boarded a ship to Spain with the support of his older brother Paciano but without
informing his parents. The ten years he would spend on the European continent would leave an indelible mark on his personality and
open his eyes to the world, develop his natural talents and strengthen his devotion to his motherland.
Academics in Europe
In Spain, he continued the studies that were stalled in the Philippines and enrolled at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he
graduated in 1884 with a degree in Medicine, and a year later with a degree in Philosophy and letters from the same institution. Even
after the completion of these two degrees, he still was not satisfied and traveled to France and studied at the University of Paris.
In his pursuit to further increase his knowledge in his chosen field of specialization ophthalmology he studied at the University of
Heidelberg under the distinguished eye specialist, Professor Otto Becker.
Recognition in Europe
Born a few centuries too late, Rizal could have been an ideal Renaissance Man, he was a polymath who excelled at anything he put his
considerable mind and talents to. The study of land assessment, medicine, and literature are just a few of his known accomplishments but
he also excellent in arts such as sculpting, painting, architecture; physical activities such as martial arts, fencing, pistol shooting were
also where he demonstrated his prowess; he was well read could discuss agriculture, economics, sociology, anthropology and history at
will.

Photo courtesy of Lopez Museum
117 years after Rizals death, the government where his family hailed in Calamba, Laguna recognized Rizals ability in various sports
during his lifetime.
READ Jose Rizal as a hero sportsman, the great eskrimador or dueler.
Apart from these, he was also multilingual and was known to have been able to converse in over 10 languages including Filipino,
Spanish, English, French, German, and Dutch, among others.
Rizal was also a member of the Freemasons. It is therefore no surprise that wherever he went, people were drawn to his charm, wit,
intelligence and personality. He made friends and lovers wherever he went and left an impression and reputation that would outlive him.
Foundations for Reform
Even as a youth, Jose Rizal had been exposed to the difficulties of being under the Spanish colonial government, which had instilled in
him the need for change in the system of how the country was being run. Jose Rizal spent most of his time with his older brother
Paciano, a man who had been linked to Filipino priests, Gomez, Burgos and Zamora, who sought reform within the catholic church by
advocating equal rights for Filipino and Spanish priests in the Philippines. The three priests were later accused of being subversive and
were executed by the Spanish colonial government.
Even closer to home, Rizal saw the treatment accorded to his beloved mother by the Spanish authorities who accused her of attempting
to poison her cousin and sent her to jail in Santa Cruz, Laguna. Teodora Mercado was made to walk sixteen kilometers from their home
to the prison and was incarcerated for 2 and a half years until a successful appeal at the highest court of the Spanish government cleared
her of the charges.
Novels
During his stay in first stay in Europe, Rizal wrote his novel, Noli Me Tangere.The book was written in Spanish and first published in
Berlin, Germany in 1887. The Noli, as it is more commonly known, tells the story of a young Filipino man who travels to Europe to
study and returns home with new eyes to the injustices and corruption in his native land.
Rizal used elaborate characters to symbolize the different personalities and characteristics of both the oppressors and the oppressed,
paying notable attention to Filipinos who had adopted the customs of their colonizers, forgetting their own nationality; the Spanish friars
who were portrayed as lustful and greedy men in robes who sought only to satisfy their own needs, and the poor and ignorant members
of society who knew no other life but that of one of abject poverty and cruelty under the yoke of the church and state. Rizals first novel
was a scalding criticism of the Spanish colonial system in the country and Philippine society in general, was met with harsh reactions
from the elite, the church and the government.
Upon his return to the country, he was summoned by the Governor General of the Philippine Islands to explain himself in light of
accusations that he was a subversive and an inciter of rebellion. Rizal faced the charges and defended himself admirably, and although he
was exonerated, his name would remain on the watch list of the colonial government. Similarly, his work also produced a great uproar in
the Catholic Church in the country, so much so that later, he was excommunicated.
Despite the reaction to his first novel, Rizal wrote a second novel, El Filibusterismo, and published it in 1891. Where the protagonist
of Noli, Ibarra, was a pacifist and advocate of peaceful means of reforms to enact the necessary change in the system, the lead character
in Fili, Simeon, was more militant and preferred to incite an armed uprising to achieve the same end. Hence the government could not
help but notice that instead of being merely a commentary on Philippine society, the second novel could become the catalyst which
would encourage Filipinos to revolt against the Spanish colonizers and overthrow the colonial government.
Arrest, Exile, and Incarceration
Upon his return to the Philippines in 1892, he was arrested by the Spanish government for being a subversive and for his reported
involvement in the rebellion. He was then exiled to the island of the Dapitan in the southernmost island group of the Philippines,
Mindanao. There he established a school that taught English to young boys, he worked on agricultural projects on abaca, a plant used for
rope, and he continued to practice medicine, eventually meeting one of the most famous women in his life, Josephine Bracken.
Although Jose Rizal had repeatedly said that he advocated peaceful reforms in the Philippines, the Spanish government were correct in
assuming that his novels would indeed stir up a hornets nest of unrest in the islands. One of the leaders of the revolutionary group
called Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, had read the Rizals novels and had used these as a basis for the revolution. So influential was Rizal
that even without his permission they named him as a member and Katipuneros shouted his name as part of the their battlecry.
With no wish to be further implicated in the revolution, Rizal asked and was granted permission by then governor General Ramon
Blanco to travel to Cuba, another Spanish Colony at the time, to support in the medical efforts needed to suppress an outbreak of yellow
fever. On the way to Cuba, Rizal was arrested and incarcerated in Barcelona due to the political manoeuvrings of the friars which saw
Blanco removed from office and replaced by Camilo de Polavieja.
Execution and Death
Rizal was then brought back to the Philippines to face charges of rebellion due to his reported association with the revolutionary
movement. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Jose Rizal was executed by a firing squad on December 30 1896, at
7:00am, in Bagumbayan (now called Rizal Park) and his remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby Paco Cemetery.
Through the years, Rizals works and ideals have been cited by many reformists, such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Sun Yat Sen and even
Ghandi as the means for peace reforms. As the national hero of the Philippines, his works, are required reading for all students and
streets, buildings, and parks have been named after him and the 30th of December, his death anniversary, was declared a national
holiday.
Rizals Legacy
What made Jose Rizal worthy of becoming the Philippines national hero was not merely his intelligence, personality, literary acumen, or
his pacifist ideals. Rather, it was his patriotism, optimism, undying love for his country and his belief in his countrymen which set him
apart. He believed not merely in freedom but in the potential of the Filipino people to surpass what they were under the Spanish colonial
government, and all he wished was for them to be given the chance to tap that potential. And for that, he has earned his right place as a
symbol of what a Filipino can do in one short lifetime.